Did you ever have one of those days when you really shouldn't have bothered to get out of bed in the morning? After oversleeping due to unsettling dreams, finally arising to discover yet more snow, shoveling said snow for forty minutes in the rain, and then spending an hour on the phone trying to talk an extraordinarily stupid person through accomplishing what should have been a mind-numbingly simple task (turns out this person was running the 68K version of Netscape on an iMac, despite the fact that every iMac ever shipped has a PowerPC version of the software preinstalled), we're just generally in a foul mood. You know the type of mood we mean: the one where, despite the fact that you've got food, shelter, health, people who love you, and any number of other blessings that several less fortunate people would bleed for, you still feel like the whole world's against you just because of a string of petty annoyances that pale in comparison to the real problems that others face. And then you feel worse for letting a pile of such trivial troubles bring you down. That sort of mood.

Well, as you probably know, when saddled with a mood like that, counting one's blessings does absolutely squat to improve matters. Instead, it's best to count the misfortunes of others. For example, right now we're grateful that we aren't waiting for a PowerBook G4. You already know that while Apple did indeed manage to start shipping its latest portables by the end of January as originally promised, demand for the sleek little buddies still far outstrips supply. Well, the latest development in the saga is that people who ordered custom-built PowerBooks are now going to have to suffer for at least another couple of weeks before attaining titanium nirvana. As faithful viewer Adam C. reports, though it's been a solid month since he placed his order at the Apple Store, Apple just sent him email as follows: "We appreciate your recent order for our new, exciting custom-configured PowerBook G4. We realize you are anxious to receive your new PowerBook G4, and we are very eager to ship it to you! This email is to inform you that we have incurred a delay and that we now expect your custom-configured PowerBook G4 to ship by February 24th."

According to Apple, the additional delay is due entirely to "high demand," which, unfortunately, isn't any more informative than Steve's description of the PowerBook's demand as "gratifying" a week ago. All we know is that people are ordering more PowerBooks than Apple can put together. If Apple's making a ton of them, that's good. If Apple can only crank out, say, three a day, that's not quite so good. We won't know for sure until some actual sales numbers start to surface. In any event, at least the delay is (allegedly) due to high demand, and not some nasty design flaw that Apple only found at the last minute. If you're waiting on a PowerBook G4, sit tight; Apple claims to be filling orders "in the sequence they were received." In the meantime, you're improving our mood by allowing us to be happy that at least we're not in your place.

Of course, the reason we're not one of those poor suffering souls that's doomed to wait another two weeks for a titanium Slab o' Joy™ is because we're not getting one at all, which, come to think of it, isn't any great reason to jump up and down while cheering and waving a little flag. Hmmm... Maybe we should be focusing on the fact that at least we've got cable, instead...

Okay, so Apple's stock price is hovering near the $20 mark, which is a substantial improvement from when it bottomed out at about $13 a couple of months back; still, it's tough to argue that the company is anything but troubled. After all, that $20 stock price is still way, way down from the $75 it hit almost a year ago, the company lost nearly a quarter of a billion dollars last quarter, and we're still nervous about how Apple cranks out cool new technologies and then either a) can't sell them (e.g. the Cube) or b) can't ship enough of them (e.g. the PowerBook G4). So what's with all of this bad karma raining down hard on Apple's head?

Here's our latest theory: there's a universal and unalterable Conservation of Steve at work. Because while Apple continues to flop around like a performance artist with a live trout in his pants, it's easy for Mac people to forget that Steve heads up two companies these days. Remember Pixar? While Apple's busy building insanely great Macs, Pixar's cranking out insanely great computer animation-- and despite the fact that the company hasn't had a theatrical release since 1999's Toy Story 2, Pixar is doing quite well even as Apple continues to flounder. As faithful viewer The Amazing Llama points out, Insanely Great Mac reports that Pixar's latest quarterly results were a far cry from Apple's relatively dismal numbers; the company's Q4 profit of $35.2 million was up from $9.6 million in the same quarter a year ago. (That's a whopping 267% increase, for the calculatorily-challenged.) That's Pixar's "biggest quarter to date."

Note that this news comes mere weeks after Apple reported its worst results since the Amelio Era-- even worse than the only other quarterly loss Apple has posted in AtAT's entire broadcast history, during 1997's "Gil-To-Steve Transition Period." Clearly this is incontestible evidence that when Pixar's up, Apple's down-- because there's only so much Steve to go around. Here's hoping that the mole-people denizens of Apple's super-secret underground research pit are close to a successful completion of the ongoing "Hey, Let's Clone Steve" project, because frankly, we don't see any other way for both companies to stay on top.

Not enough Steve in your life right now? Are you suffering from listlessness brought on by a nasty onslaught of Steve deficiency? Well, what do you expect? It's been a month since the man's last keynote address, so you're obviously due for a booster shot-- especially if you neglected to follow doctor's orders and only experienced Steve via webcast, instead of live, in-person, and extra-strength. (Couldn't afford a ticket to San Francisco? Cry us a river. C'mon, if you don't have your health, you don't have anything. Priorities, people!)

Well, here's some good news; there's a chance that you may be able to get in front of Steve's life-affirming energy before your deficiency advances to a lethal state. According to MacCentral, the keynote speaker at Macworld Expo Tokyo in two weeks will be none other than-- brace yourselves, 'cause this is a one crazy plot twist-- Steve Jobs himself. Yes, we know it's a shock, especially since the man delivered the keynote at that very same event last year, but calm yourself and get over it, because you've got work to do. Obviously you're going to have to attend that keynote. Is your passport in order?

See, as of yet, there's no word of a planned webcast from Tokyo's Stevenote, which means that since you were too cheap to wing it to San Francisco, now you're going to have to shell out crazy ducats to get your Steve-deprived butt to the Land of the Rising Sun. Oooh, and with less than three weeks' advance ticket purchase, to boot... that false economy'll kill you every time. But think of it this way: maybe Steve will give away a free t-shirt or something to help soften the blow. Enjoy the flight!